Feb 10, 2009 — Kelly and I drove our old Ford Econoline van all over Mexico and Guatemala for four months… let’s see. 2009 minus 1979, can it really be 30 years ago?

That’s the silhouette of Lake Atitlan in the background, with some Guatemalan ruins atop our van, which Kelly was driving fast across a Mexican river so the van would make it. That was after a night at a remote hot springs somewhere in the Chihuahua desert.

I wanted to buy the pottery oven I’ve put above the ruins, and when it was really too large to fit in a van already crammed with pottery and handicrafts, I took a picture of it.

Kelly, red-headed then, is lounging in the entrance to the theater in Guanajuato, and I am buying a huipil from a Guatemalan woman in Chichicastenango.

We actually came to Lake Chapala for a few days on that trip, and stayed in the old campground where the El Parque development is now.

On that trip, we often camped in remote rural spots, usually asking local people’s advice about safe places. We woke very early one morning to the van’s jiggling, thinking it was curious local children, but it was an earthquake.

Ah, the good old days. And I guess the picture proves we really are old hippies!

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